Specialized Rumor Elite - Tested
Specialized is, in part, to thank for mountain biking as we enjoy it today. And the Rumor could well be helping more women enjoy riding off-road.
All about Specialized
Specialized was founded by Californian Mike Sinyard in 1972, funded by the sale of his VW Kombi. Back then the business known as Specialized Bicycle Components really was just that, an importer selling high-end racing parts to a quality-starved US market. Gradually, Sinyard found that he could improve sales by producing his own parts and, starting with touring tyres, a new style of business – one that anticipated the market’s needs and responded first – began to grow. While Specialized started on the road, it was the first brand to sell a mass-produced mountain bike – the Stumpjumper in 1981 – a model that’s still in production today. In this move, Specialized anticipated an explosion in the popularity of the sport and made it affordable.
Specialized is, in part, to thank for mountain biking as we enjoy it today.
Sinyard is a very rich man these days and could afford as many VW Kombis as he wants (Merida reportedly paid US$30 million for a 49 per cent share in the company in 2001), and holding onto its precious reputation for innovation drives research and design at Specialized. Concepts such as SWAT (storage, water, air, tools) where places to stash your stuff are integrated into the bike, is just one way Specialized are trying to stay ahead. Its Evo bikes, usually one high-end model within a range that incorporates beefier parts and more travel – is another. Its women’s range, which began in 2002, is one more.
Specialized were among the pioneers in the women’s bike market, and in 2015 will import the most comprehensive range of women’s mountain bikes into Australia of any of the big brands, with no fewer than 20 models available. Many of these are in the middle to high end of the market, bringing choice to women who want to ride often, ride hard, and even race in disciplines from XCM to enduro.
The Rumor has been around since 2013, with the longer travel Evo model new for 2015. The Rumor is the sister of the unisex Camber model, which unlike the Rumor is available in carbon.
A look around the bike
A look at the Rumor reminds me just how much bikes have changed in the last few years. Straight top tubes and down tubes are long gone, and we’re all riding potbellied bikes for the lower standover height that helps make small 29” bikes manageable. The Rumor achieves this with a two-piece top tube of hydroformed alloy, which also allows for an in-line shock mount. Most thrilling for this reviewer is that the Rumor in all sizes provides enough room for a full-size water bottle and you won’t graze your knuckles taking it in or out.
The Rumor Elite comes in stealthy matte black, with some cool Specialized decals on the down tube. I really liked the look of this bike – it’s sleek, contemporary… and practical. The less white there is on a bike, the more time I have to review it. The frame is also well presented with internal cable routing for both front and rear derailleur, although not the dropper seat post, which seemed a shame.
Specialized work closely with shock manufacturers, in this case Fox, to construct shocks that fit their suspension design and specs. In the case of its women’s models, Specialized also install shocks with spring rates tuned to lighter-weight riders – the goal being that women get the same performance out of their shocks as men do out of the box – we often miss out on small bump performance because we’re too light to activate the shock. This is something that sparks a lot of conversation at the AMB office – look for the Cyclinic tech feature in a coming issue.
Front to back, bottom to top, the Rumor has an intelligent spec, and it’s clear that time and thought have gone into choosing each part. I was impressed by the control room setup – the bars at 680mm are a great width for female riders, the SLX brake levers are adjustable, so you can wind them closer to your grips if you need to (I always do). The bars are stocked with slimmer grips for women, and the stem is a wise 90mm with versatile six-degree rise.
The Rumor’s Roval Control wheelset are a sensible choice for this type of bike, designed for lighter riders seeking challenges. The wheels have DT Swiss hub internals and spokes and lightweight alloy rims. The tubeless ready Ground Control tyres are a smart combination of a 2.3” on the front for extra bite and a faster-rolling 2.1” on the back.
Both the RockShox Revelation fork and the Fox Float CTD Performance rear shock have 110mm of travel, and both have some handy adjustment features including rebound adjust on the rear and compression and rebound adjust on the front. An added feature is Fox Float’s Autosag… more about that later.
Specialized promise women ‘a perfect fit for every size’. The best thing about the Rumor in this and other models is that it comes in a good range of sizes, so those who are keen to ride a 29” bike for its big-rolling stability should be able to do so, no matter what their height. I like the fact that the bikes also come stocked with different crank lengths for different sized bikes – something Specialized does on its women’s and unisex models. Every bike shop should fit you up, and Specialized have their highly-reputable ‘Body Geometry’ fit, which takes into account your flexibility, personal history, goals, and pedalling action.
The Rumor is of course fitted with a women’s saddle – the Body Geometry women’s Myth Comp – mounted on a Specialized Command Post dropper with a remote lever.
Before we took the Rumor out, AMB made a couple of minor adjustments, setting up the tyres tubeless (a very quick and easy process with the Rumor’s tubeless-ready rims and tyres). We also followed the instructions, printed on the shock to set the Fox Float’s Autosag, then we were on our way.
RIDER BIO: Imogen Smith
Riding Experience: AMB’s resident women’s bike tester, Imogen has spent her adult life riding and racing mountain bikes.
Generally Rides: Bianchi Methanol SL and Bianchi Methanol FS
Height: 171cm
Weight: 55kg
Bike Test Track: Sydney’s new Bantry Bay trails
Three things you liked about the bike:
- Well-balanced and great precision
- Incredibly thoughtful spec
- Versatile all-rounder.
Three things you would change about the bike:
- I found the head angle a little too steep and took some getting used to
- Both the Autosag function on the rear shock and the spring rates of both shocks need a bit more tweaking for light riders
- Tubeless conversion a quick and easy upgrade.
On The Trail
The Rumor, with its relatively long wheelbase and 29” wheels is all about stability, and is perfectly balanced at low speed – especially when riding in a straight line, be it across a tiny timber bridge or down a very techy descent. This balance also worked favourably on the climbs, and the 22/34 chain rings gave me more than enough options – in fact for anything but arduous hills I rarely used the 22-tooth at all, though it was very nice to know it was there.
I did find the head angle of the Rumor, which affects how sensitive your steering feels, a little on the steep side at 70°, and it took me quite some time to adjust to this through both long sweeping corners and short twisty bends, where I found I had a tendency to oversteer, then adjust.
The Roval Control wheelset really is a great choice for this style of bike. Given that a female rider is probably going to be lighter than her male counterpart, Specialized have taken the opportunity to spec a lightweight wheel, although it can still take a solid beating and could handle even extremely rough terrain without complaint. The Ground Control tyres performed well on the terrain we tested them on – rocky, sandy, rough trails with plenty of tight corners. Riders looking for more speed might choose to swap the 2.3” front tyre for a narrower 2.1” to match the rear.
The RockShox Revelation fork and Fox Float rear shock are excellent choices for the Rumor, providing stiff, plush travel. Although there’s a fair bit of experience at AMB in setting up suspension for sag, we followed the instructions on the rear shock to test out the Autosag function, and were a little disappointed that even after setting it two or three times the shock still retained too much air. Our verdict is that it’s a great way to get started if you’re in a hurry or swapping riders, but in reality a shop should set your suspension up when you buy the bike and you can always tweak shock pressure to suit your preferences as you ride. A shock pump is an essential accessory and really useful – you should be checking your fork pressure quite regularly because like all valves, they do leak (although extremely slowly).
As I’ve mentioned, Specialized have shocks on their women’s bikes tuned for lighter riders – personally I think small bump performance could have been even better with an even lighter tune, but that level of customisation is too much to ask of the world’s third biggest bike brand. Watch instead for our upcoming tech feature on tuning forks for lighter riders.
Specialized understand saddles really well, and with their range of Body Geometry saddles have cottoned on to a concept that’s been staring us in the face for decades – it’s width that makes a saddle fit. Rather than offering a range of different models – some wide, some narrow, some in the middle – Specialized have up to three different widths available in every model – so if you’re a racer but you have wide sit bones, you no longer have to buy a saddle that a commuter would rejoice in, and so on.
The Rumor comes specced with the very comfy Myth Comp women’s saddle at 155mm. If this is too wide, your dealer will probably be quite happy to swap it out for a narrower Myth Comp. I’ve mentioned Specialized’s Body Geometry fit – buying a new bike is the time to get a proper bike fit. Don’t miss this important opportunity to make sure your ride is perfect for you.
It’s been a real pleasure this year to test and ride bikes with dropper posts – I don’t have one on any of my own bikes, but I like them more and more each time I use them. A quick word of caution. Speciaized’s Command Post has a frighteningly rapid action. I made sure I was well out of the way when I pushed the return lever after techy descents!
I was thrilled with the cockpit setup on this bike. The bars were a perfect width, the brakes and levers a sensible choice that performed well. Just a quick word on the grips, however, which are narrower for smaller hands: In my experience a lot of women, and especially those starting out, can experience significant hand pain – after all, your hands take a lot of your upper body weight and cop a lot of feedback from the trail. In my opinion the cheapest and simplest way to deal with this is just to buy foam grips rather than look for women’s versions – foam grips weigh nothing and absorb a lot of vibration, are cheap and easy to replace, come in lots of colours, and are very, very comfy. The only thing left to do then is sit back and wait for your callouses to develop.
For more than a year now I’ve tested a women’s bike for nearly every issue of AMB, and this one pulled me up short. All the bikes I’ve tested, I realised, were either quite similar to those I was used to riding, or vastly different. All were designed with a specific style of riding in mind, and this made reviewing easy.
I agonised for days over why the Rumor was designed the way it was: why not make it racier? Why not make it beefier like the Evo model? And while I went through the seven stages of bike testing grief during the course of this review, I’ve finished it up humbled by the Rumor’s versatility. The fact is that for a woman looking to have a go at a variety of trail types, the Rumor has her covered. Anyone with a specific discipline in mind may look elsewhere, and indeed there are many choices in Specialized’s vast women’s range, as well as from other brands.
Like a lot of riders, there’s no reason why a bike should be bound to any particular discipline. Over the last five or ten years mountain bike parks, gravity-assisted flow trails, and enduro riding have developed hand-in-hand with bike technology that tempts riders further and further from their old comfort zones. The Specialized Rumor is a great all-rounder and will take you just about anywhere you want to go on two wheels.
Parts
Brand Specialized
Model Rumor Elite
RRP $4,399
Weight 13.1kg (as tested)
Available Sizes 15.2”, 16.8”, 17.5″ (tested)
Frame Material M5 hydroformed alloy, Women’s XC Trail 29er Geometry
Fork RockShox Revelation RC 29, 110mm travel
Shock Custom FOX Float CTD Performance w/ AUTOSAG
Shifters Shimano SLX, 10-speed
Front Derailleur SRAM X7, 2×10, S3 direct mount
Rear DERAILLEUR Shimano XTR Shadow Plus, 10-speed, GS mid cage
Crank Custom SRAM S-2200, carbon, PF30 spindle, 34/22
Bottom bracket SRAM PF30
Chain SRAM PC 1031 10sp
Cassette SRAM PG 1030 10sp, 11-36
Hubs Roval Control 29, 15mm thru-axle front, 142+, 12mm thru-axle rear
Spokes DT Swiss Revolution
Rims Roval Control 29, alloy, 21mm inner width, 32h
Tyres Specialized Ground Control, 2Bliss Ready, 29×2.3/2.1″ (F/R)
Brakes Shimano SLX hydraulic disc, metallic pads
Stem Specialized XC, 3D forged alloy, 4-bolt, 6-degree rise, 90mm
Handlebars Specialized XC, 680mm, 8-degree backsweep, 6-degree upsweep, 10mm rise, 31.8mm
Seatpost Command Post BlackLite
Saddle Body Geometry Women’s Myth Comp, hollow Cr-Mo rails, 155mm
